


As long as it takes to reach the sky

by isyotm



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-15 22:54:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13623216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isyotm/pseuds/isyotm
Summary: What was, what is, and what could have been.





	As long as it takes to reach the sky

**Author's Note:**

> I’m rewatching _Haikyuu!!_ and being very sad about the relationship between Kageyama, Kunimi, and Kindaichi, so here you go.
> 
> Title from "Climber" by Galileo Galilei (the first opening theme for season two).

In another life, they build something beautiful together.

In another life, they spin diamond castles out of thin air, beautiful structures that sparkle and catch the eye, as unbreakable as they are breathtaking.

In another life, they are unstoppable, three points of a perfect golden triangle.

This is not that life.

 

If Kageyama was the type to look back, to regret, he might wonder where they broke, wonder why.

Was it him? Pushing himself ceaselessly, exploring the ever-expanding limits of his talent while the others were still just enjoying a game and a team, trying to find the place they fit. The hunger that burns inside of him, never satisfied, threatening to consume him if he doesn’t sate it with victory after victory.

Was it them? Focusing outward on their teammates, their teammates and upperclassmen and coaches, long before they looked inward and saw the well of talent waiting to be tapped into. Resistant, stubborn, pushing back against him because they didn’t like the way they were being pushed. Insisting they couldn’t catch up, and perhaps by speaking it, making it true.

Were they always going to end up here, even in that golden other life, even as kings in their diamond castle? Two against one. A pair of strangers turning their backs on this starving, angry boy, tired of his uncompromising nature and constant rebukes.

No one knows. Maybe it doesn’t matter. What matters is that they broke.

He doesn’t look back. He doesn’t regret. He keeps his eyes forward, fixed on the things in front of him and the things he needs to win. Now, in front of him, what he needs most, is not two tall boys, one with sleep eyes and one with black hair sticking straight up like a lightning strike, but one small boy who moves like the wind, who _flies_ instead of jumps,  whose fiery golden eyes burn with a desire for victory that matches his own.

 

In this life, what the two of them build together is not a diamond castle. Instead, it is constantly shifting, as dangerous to others as it is to them. It needs help being shaped, controlled. A tower of fire, bright, burning, unfinished, _never_ finished, its flames as hungry as they are. Treacherous, unstable, eye-catching. Impossible to look away from.

A castle can be besieged, conquered. It is stable, a fixture in the landscape, an anchor. It is something to be built around and when it is lost, it is something to mourn.

Their tower is a monument, a soaring pinnacle in the sky. It spirals higher and higher, beyond the reach of mere mortals, its peak stretching towards the heavens. Those who wish to climb must move quickly or they will never reach the top, burned by the flames that surround it, a warning to the unworthy, to those who don’t _want_ badly enough. It is a marvel, but one that they are not afraid to lose and one that they can rebuild again and again, as many times as it takes.

**Author's Note:**

> For some reason I've gotten into this rut lately where I’m, like, not "allowed" to post something unless it’s a certain length. I'm trying to break out of that mindset.


End file.
